The Dan Bongino Show - Another Disaster for the Democrats! (Ep 1190)

Episode Date: February 26, 2020

In this episode, I address the disturbing lowlights from last night’s Democrat debate. I also address eye-opening new connections between the players involved in the framing of Lt. General Mike Flynn. Finally, I debunk Bernie Sanders’s lies about Cuba and socialism.  News Picks:Why Bernie Sanders’s praise of Fidel Castro matters.    Debunking liberal lies about Cuba.   Bernie Sanders is lying about Cuba.   Twenty things to know about Bernie Sanders.   President Trump’s appointments to the Nutty Ninth Circuit are already paying dividends.   Who set up Lt. General Mike Flynn?   Copyright Bongino Inc All Rights Reserved.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

get ready to hear the truth about america on a show that's not immune to the facts with your host dan bongino did you see it last night the disaster did you see the bernie hands too what was that cheerleading movie bring it on with uh what was it the the happy hands or whatever they do and you know i always screw up the cultural references bernie says remember that if you're watching on the YouTube, he's got, the guy can't put his hand down. Calm down, Bernie.

I got that. The disastrous debate coverage last night got some, just more debunking to do on Bernie nonsense and some stunning reveals in the Mike Flynn case,

which continues to creep up like an open sewer in our justice system. Don't go anywhere. Today's show is sponsored by ExpressVPN. Your data is your business. Protect it today at expressvpn.com slash Bongino. Welcome to the Dan Bongino show. Producer Joe, how are you today? Fine, sir? Well, dude, we got a day ahead of us, brother. Yeah, we've been traveling. I know. Joe's traveling. I'm traveling after the show up to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference.

As I said yesterday, we'll see you there. Joe will be there. Paul will be there. The whole crew will be there. Stop by, say hello. We'd like to say hello to you. All right, today's show brought to you by everybody's at LifeLock. Tax season can be a pain,

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Just go to LifeLock.com slash Bongino. That's LifeLock.com slash bongino that's lifelock.com slash bongino for 25 off i've got this for my family my wife my kids everyone protect their identities lifelock.com slash bongino today all right joe let's go and down the stretch they come they do we got a little delayed trigger finger on the bell but that's okay so let's start out last night being that it's uh the day before uh c-pack we're getting ready to. So let's start out last night, being that it's the day before CPAC, we're getting ready to travel here. Let's start out with kind of the big flubs from last night's debate. And when I say flubs, I mean, just listen, this is supposed to be the safe lane, right?

For many of you who have listened to my show, you understand my theory of presidential electoral politics, which is there are always three lanes in any presidential race. It's not an oversimplification to say this. always three lanes in any presidential race. It's not an oversimplification to say this. If you look back at the dynamics of significant presidential races over the last 50 years, you'll see candidates from each of these three lanes emerge. There's the safe lane, you know, sometimes called the establishment pick, the radical lane, you know, what we'd call the ideological pick sometimes, and the outsider lane. You'll see those. And depending on the current mood of the country, is everything going well and they want to keep everything the same, then the safe pick's the way to go.

That's why presidents are typically reelected, sitting presidents. Right. Is it one of those disastrous depression-like times where they want the radical ideological pick who gains some, the Williams-Jennings-Bryan type who gets some kind of, you know, traction behind them? Or is it the outsider pick where people just fed up with DC in general, where you have a Donald Trump type that comes in and sweeps the deck?

Depends. Depends on who does well in the lane, who's authentic to the lane. And as I've said in the past, what lane is dominant at the time overall, when it comes to looking at the people's collective, where they want to go forward. Having said that, the safe lane in this election, or what's been deemed the safe lane, the establishment lane, have been two now candidates.

Originally it was Joe Biden. Now you see Mike Bloomberg. Let me tell you again with these two clips here, the two major flubs of the night, why these guys are not safe. Biden's not safe because he can never surgically

remove his foot from his mouth, forgets what state he's in, what race he's running for. He declared he was running for the U.S. Senate the other day. Not kidding. Didn't play the video because it's just dumb. But here again is an example last night in a debate where Biden's never measured by how well he does. Remember, this is the safe pick, supposedly, the establishment pick.

He's supposed to be the safe candidate. He's never measured. You notice this show by how well he does never he's only measured by how little he screws up here was another colossal screw up last night where he can't seem to get basic data statistics i mean basic stuff you're right he's trying to cite a statistic for gun homicides in the United States. Listen to this clip and keep in mind when you're listening to it, the population of the United States is about 330, 350 million people. Okay.

Depending on how many legals versus illegals in the country. So about, let's say 350 million people to be generous. Now listen to Biden's statistic on gun homicides and gun violence. And you'll see how this guy has no place in this debate. Definitely not in a safe lane. Check this out. I'm the only one that ever got it done nationally. I beat the NRA twice.

I got assault weapons banned. I got magazines that could not hold more than 10 rounds in them. I got them eliminated, except we had a thing called an election with hanging chads in Florida, and it was not reauthorized. In addition to that, I passed the Brady Bill with waiting periods. I led that fight. But my friend and my right and others have, in fact, also given to the gun manufacturers absolute immunity. Imagine if I stood here and said we give immunity to drug companies, we give immunity to tobacco companies. That has caused carnage on our streets. 150 million people have been killed since 2007 when Bernie voted to exempt the gun manufacturers from liability. More than all the wars, including Vietnam, from that point on. Carnage on our street. And I want

to tell you, if I'm elected and I'm coming for you, and gun manufacturers, I'm going to take you on and I'm going to beat you. Huh? Hold on. Joe, quick math here. Can I be my own audience referee on BuzzFeed? I know that's your job, typically, Joe, but I know you're busy. We're traveling today.

So I'm just going to do some speed. 130. There you go. By 150. So about 45 percent of the u.s population has been killed by guns in the last what do you say since the 2007 so 13 13 oh my gosh wow what an epidemic listen i'm not here to downplay any kind of gun. That's never a joke, folks. But if you're going to speak about things that are seriously tragic, like gun violence, you may want to get the numbers close a little bit.

150 million people have been killed by guns. 150 million. Listen, did he mean to say 150,000? The truth is with Joe Biden, ladies and gentlemen, I have no idea. He said he was arrested going to see Nelson Mandela the other day too. And that wasn't true too. Oh, by the way, I don't have this in the show today, but just on a side note, just showing you again, piling on the fact that this guy is not the safe pick.

He can never get a statistic right, forgets what state he's in, forgets what race he's running in, makes up facts about his past. He said he was arrested going to see Nelson Mandela in the 70s on a Codell, a congressional delegation trip when he was a member of the Senate.

Well, what happened? Well, apparently they were detained at the airport. When I say detained, they were probably just stopped for a passport check. Ladies and gentlemen, I have traveled around the world extensively in my prior line of work. 37-something countries, probably 60-plus cities. You go to countries, you can bounce around, obviously, to various cities in there, which is what we did. I was detained once, in Joe Biden language. Matter of fact, multiple times while people check my passport, I'm unaware I had to fill out the, Paul, I was arrested in foreign

countries. 10 times I was arrested. I got an extensive arrest record apparently overseas. Ladies and gentlemen, you see how this guy just makes things up? We had a WACA guy, White House Communications Agency guy. I've told the story before when I did a security advance at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, who had to turn in a car on the military base. And he was late to get back on the support plane home. Was he arrested too? I mean, do I have to fill out paperwork for him? Do I have to notify his family? This guy just makes stuff up, folks. He is not the safe pick. These things add up and they add the most damage. Listen to me. this is important the most damaging political narratives are the one that change pre-existing narratives about who a

candidate is the pre-existing narrative the democrats have been trying to sell to you about biden is that he is the safe stable guy right the most damaging emerging political narrative about biden which he's done to himself is the reality that he's not stable. And when I say stable, I don't mean he's sociopathic. I mean, he doesn't mentally present a coherent, cogent case that he's on his game. He just doesn't do it. Very bad debate last night for Biden. I'm sorry. People said, oh, it was his best debate. You really set the bar low for this guy. Second, Bloomberg flubs it again. This guy's an awful debater. Nanny Bloomberg is really terrible. Listen, I know I'm a conservative. I'm trying to be objective here to evaluate their field. It's difficult, but I am doing my best. He is a really awful debater.

Awful. It's hard to see who they're, they're, none of them are very good. They're just not, none of them has the Ted Cruz ability to kind of like nail to then distill down to points fast. These, they're just not very good, but Bloomberg is clearly the worst debate around the stage. Here's Bloomberg last night.

One of the greatest Freudian slips of all time. Remember Bloomberg's supposed to be the safe pick. And with the safe pick, you want to align at least with core Democratic values, right? To be safe. A safe pick can't be a guy who's a Republican who wants higher taxes, is pro-abortion, and hates guns, right? That's not a safe pick because the base isn't going to vote for him. What is one of the core tenets of the Democrat Party?

I'm not going to get this anywhere else. One of the core tenets of the Democrat Party is we don't like money in politics. It's corrupting, right? Listen to Bloomberg, one of the greatest Freudian slips of all time, showing you again, this guy's not the safe pick either. Check this out. They talked about 40 Democrats. 21 of those were people that I spent $100 million to help elect. All of the new Democrats that came in and put nancy pelosi in charge and gave the congress the ability to control this president i bought i i got them number two when you talk about money let's put this in perspective i don't think that was a cigar that's not rocket that's not rocket for those of you seeing Colors,

one of the great movies of all time. Let's run down that hill and those bulls. How about we walk down? That's not Rocket. That's not exactly what Bloomberg meant to say. It's what happened, but that's not what Bloomberg meant to say. It's what happened, but that's not what Bloomberg meant to say. He bought these,

so Bloomberg's essentially admitting that his billions of dollars influenced an election to turn over the House of Representatives and that his money was used to buy these candidates. He just said it. And one of the great Freudian slips of all time. Folks, again, not to belabor this point, he is not the safe pick again.

A safe pick is generally safe when it comes to issues as well. The Democrats have run on identity politics, class warfare, and getting money out of politics, supposedly. Those are the three core pillars of the Democrat Party for the last 20 years, for the last two decades. Bloomberg meets none of those. He has an identity politics issue

with stop and frisk. He has a class warfare issue because he's the 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1%. And he has a money in politics issue because he is the money in politics. By the way, in case you want to know what percent Bloomberg is, you do the math. The 1%, the 1% are considered, excuse me, by democratic terms, the wealthy, correct? Yeah. The 0.01% are people who would make $2.8 million a year or more. People who make, what, 64 billion? What does he make a year? I don't know, two, three billion a year.

I'm telling you, folks, I can't even do it. You got to be 0, 0, 0, 0, what, $64 billion? What does he make a year? I don't know, $2, $3 billion a year? I'm telling you, folks, I can't even do it. You got to be 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1. Bloomberg is not the safe pick either. They are in deep trouble in this election. Okay, let's go to the post. Because really, the whole thing was just a rehash of stuff you've heard before. Let's go to the post-debate coverage. Here is Bernie Sanders.

Folks, again, this is unfathomable. I was talking to Paula before the the show which you're never supposed to say on the show no one cares what you're talking about before the show but it's important because i'll reiterate this i cannot understand how a guy who is a hair length away from the presidency bernie sanders actually i can't under i know what's going on but i can't understand how his political tacticians and his strategists are not in this guy's ear saying, Bernie, shut your pie hole about Cuba. There is nothing good about socialism, brother Bernie. Nothing. Please shut up. This guy cannot stop defending Cubaa he is either one i'm not messing with you

the dumbest strategic political candidate for president for the presidency in human history or the more obvious choice he's a diehard communist. He's not stupid. He is number two. I have a piece in the show notes today, by the way, Bongino.com slash newsletter. Check it out. It said from National Review, it's 20 things to know about Bernie Sanders.

One of them is the fact that even his friends acknowledge this guy is basically a communist who cannot stop talking about socialism. Check it out. It's in the show notes. It's pretty good. It's by Jim Garrity. Check it out. He in the show notes it's pretty good by jim garrity check it out he is a diehard listen to this post-debate coverage this is bernie sanders in the spin room still glossing over and putting caveats when discussing the evil murderous socialist regimes check this out number one truth is truth if somebody in saudi arabia

or any country in the world teaches illiterate people to read you're telling me that's a bad thing it is not i i i can't i just i cannot folks listen having run for office myself three times, nearly won one, I had pretty decent political instincts, especially in that second one where we almost pulled off a huge upset. But I knew when I was getting bad advice, which wasn't often, but I knew when I was. Will you stop with the literacy programs? Holy Moses. As I said yesterday, there are universal evils.

Slavery, the Holocaust, indentured servitude. We get it. Socialism. We don't talk about things like that with caveats. We just don't. We don't talk about some of the most evil world leaders, Ceausescu, Idi Amin, and we don't say, but they taught a few people to read.

Now, I'm going to get into this in a sec because my resident fact checker, Matt Palumbo, has a spectacular piece debunking this Cuba nonsense that I'm going to get into in a moment because I give you the ammo here. I still got the Flynn stuff too, so don't go anywhere. It's going to open your eyes. But I want to make sure we have this fully covered.

The Cuba stuff is nonsense. It's garbage. But here is a video, hat tip, Daily Caller. It's Greg Price, who does great work with the social media stuff, the Daily Caller. He's at Greg underscore Price 11. At Greg underscore Price 11. This is his video from the Daily Caller. He's at Greg underscore Price 11, at Greg underscore Price 11. This is his video from the Daily Caller.

This is a montage they put together. And by the way, the montage is two and a half minutes long. I retweeted it this morning. You can go to the Daily Caller's Twitter feed or Greg Price's to see it yourself. But this is just a minute and 30 montage. In case you think, oh no, Bernie Sanders just talking about Denmark and Sweden.

Here is a, and I have to cut it in half for time, a montage of Bernie Sanders praising authoritarian regimes all over the world. Check this out. It's funny, sometimes American journalists talk about how bad a country is because people are lining up for food. That's a good thing. In other countries, people don't line up for food. The rich get the food and the poor starve to death.

You know, as a socialist, the word socialism does not frighten me. When we were in Moscow, for example, I think most of the people here also were extremely impressed by their public transportation system. The stations themselves were absolutely beautiful, including many works of art, chandeliers that were beautiful. It was a very, very effective system. Also, I was impressed by the youth programs that they have, their palaces of culture for the young people,

a whole variety of programs for young people, and cultural programs which go far beyond what we do in this country. To China and its leadership, is if I'm not mistaken they have made more progress in addressing extreme poverty than any country in the history of civilization okay so they've done a lot of things for their people but I remember for some reason I've been very excited when when Fidel Castro made the revolution in Cuba I was a kid and I remember reading that and it was just seemed right and appropriate that poor people were rising up against rather ugly rich people. You may recall way back in, what was it, 1961, they invaded Cuba.

And everybody was totally convinced that Castro was the worst guy in the world. All the Cuban people were going to rise up in rebellion against Fidel Castro. They forgot that he educated their kids, gave them health care, totally transformed the society. In case you wonder when we come back why I'm always looking around, I get distracted easily. I'm not kidding. I cannot focus ever. I think that's what makes the shows of that good because I have to like beam

right in. And, you know, some people say, well, you explain things really well. I explain things really well because I have to explain them to myself. And once I've explained it to myself over and over, it becomes easy to explain them to you. And that's how easily I'm distracted. Folks, there it is. Bernieie's own words not mine all right before i get to matt's debunking piece about this cuba stuff because it's important how bad this guy is and how misinformed he is i want to express to you so you have a full portfolio

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Finest nutrition supplements out there. Look better. Feel better. I'm telling you. I love this stuff. I just knocked the bottle over. My favorite supplement. All right. So getting back to the article today. So Matt Palumbo did this piece because I asked him to debunk a lot of this stuff because I saw a tweet up yesterday on Twitter from a propagandist propagandizing on

behalf of China. Some guy, Ian Goodrum, who promptly blocked me when I pointed out the idiocy of his tweet. Apparently some kind of propagandist out there. But here was his tweet. He says, this is at IS Goodrum. He says, in 60 years, Cuba has achieved 79.74 years life expectancy, which he cites as being higher than the United States. 99.7% literacy rate. Again, he compares to the United States.

0% homelessness. No homeless in Cuba, Joe. Did you know that? 1.7% unemployment. Wow. Lower% literacy rate. Again, he compares to the United States. 0% homelessness. No homeless in Cuba, Joe. Did you know that? 1.7% unemployment. Wow. Lower than the U.S. All this despite decades of his cruelest embargo in history. Defending Cuba shouldn't even be a question.

This guy's a disgrace to humankind. Geez. Ian Goodrum. This is outright propaganda. Of course, he doesn't mention the torture, gulags, political prisons, death, and destruction, but he'll leave that for another day, I'm sure. So I asked Matt, can you debunk this stuff like only you can do? So we put out a piece up at Bongino.com, which is a must read, which will be in the show notes today. Debunking liberal lies on Cuba by Matt Palumbo.

Do you want to have this email to you? Bongino.com slash newsletter. Let's get right to it. Let's talk about life expectancy in Cuba. As Ian Goodrum, propagandist, tells us,, life is like people live in Cuba forever, man, not like the United States. My gosh. So Matt says, you know, it's really interesting how they get these life expectancy numbers in Cuba, because it was a paper published on this once in the Journal of Health and Policy Planning Notes where they said Cuban physicians are given health outcome

targets to meet or they face penalties. What, like death? This provides, Joe, let's call them incentives to manipulate data. Yeah. Yeah. Take Cuba's much praised infant mortality rate, for example. In most countries, the ratio of numbers to neonatal deaths and late fetal deaths stays within a certain range of each other as they have many common causes and determinants one study found that while the ratio of late fetal deaths to early neonatal

deaths in countries with available data stood between 1 and 3.03 a ratio representative latin american countries as well cuba had a ratio of 6 a clear outlier this skewed ratio is evidence that physicians show likely reclassified early neonatal deaths as late fetal deaths, thus deflating the infant mortality statistics and propping up life expectancy. Shocker. Cuban doctors were recategorizing neonatal deaths as late fetal deaths in order for doctors to meet government targets for infant mortality. Only Ian Goodrum actually believes Cuban life expectancy data. in order for doctors to meet government targets for infant mortality. Only Ian Goodrum actually believes Cuban life expectancy data. Joe, you got this thing in Cuba, right?

Where, hey, you know, here's what we're going to do with those. We're going to make those numbers meet this target, right? No, no, I can't. I'm a doctor. The Hippocratic Oath and all. All of a sudden, guy racks up the AR. You sure you won't want to meet those targets? Target met. Target met, brother. I get it. I get it. sudden guy racks up the ar uh you sure you won't want to meet those targets target met target met brother i get it i get it don't harm only ian goodrum trusts cuban life expectancy data from

an authoritarian murderous regime we'll skip past literacy for a second let's jump right to homelessness according to ian goodrum there's no homelessness in Cuba, Joe. None. All right. Stunning. I know you're shocked. I'm shocked, too. This is crazy.

What are they doing over there? Gosh, no homelessness. Amazing. So Matt digs into that one, too, of course, like only Palumbo can do. So homelessness, the same objection as above applies. Meaning, first, you're trusting that the Cubans are telling you the truth at the end of the barrel of a gun, but whatevs, he in gun run believes him. So he says, and it's also not true.

According to the Havana Times, the number of homeless people is growing in Havana. Wait, that's not possible. There's no homeless people in Havana. How could the Havana Times say this? As well as in the rest of the country, talking about Cuba for the liberals out there. Probably don't know H that is in Cuba. As one homeless elderly woman told the Times, most of the retired elderly population

receives a pension of 248 pesos per month. You know how much that is, folks? That's $10, US. Wow. And it's impossible for anyone to get by with this amount. An old person has to eat, buy medicine by medicine wash their clothes pay the electric bill gas and water bills and lots of cases it's utopian to think that someone could take on all those expenses if they live alone on a ten dollar a month pension dude again in liberal math a ten10 a month pension is just fantastic.

You realize my daughter, my 16-year-old daughter, earns more than that in a day of work. In a day of work. What Cuban pensioneers get in a month in U.S. dollars. Sounds like a great system to me, Ian. And there's no homelessness either. Screw the Havana Times. How do they live so long? Let's jump.

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's crazy. do they live so long? Let's jump. I don't know. I don't know. I mean, it's crazy. On $10 a month, it's amazing. Must be like some Captain America super serum they're all injected with or something. Let's go to that unemployment number. Supposedly lower than the United States. Ian Goodrum knows his stuff, man.

Good job, Ian. 1.7 unemployment. 1.7% unemployment. Matt says, quote, I'll borrow an argument from america's liberals on this one sure unemployment is low but the jobs don't pay anything except in this case this is actually true the average cuban earns roughly 300 is that say a year paul am i reading that right my eyesight's getting bad the average cuban earns roughly surely that's a day right three hundred dollars a day no no that is the average cuban earns roughly three hundred dollars a year oh my gosh compared to over 63 000 for the average american household man i i really want to get the cuban earn that 300 a year 300 three c notes nice gotta be like lefty from donnie breast put the c

note on the end. Nobody can see the C-note. You only get three of them a year, so you better hold on to that. The average McDonald's employee in America owns more money than most Cubans. And yes, that's even accounting for differences in the cost of living. He goes on. And do I need to point out that unemployment is low because the people there don't have a choice? Yeah, we could have zero unemployment tomorrow if we force people to work against their will like

it's a hard point to understand how complicated is this oh trying to stop backing away from the microphone for my audio i read your emails i know i'm sorry i'm just sometimes in such an utter state of disbelief on the show because it's my show. I don't have any kind of producers or anything. I do my own thing. Well, I mean, we have help, but you get what I'm saying. I write my own stuff in my head. There's no prompter here telling me what to say.

That I'm legitimately in a state of disbelief that even dopey liberals fall for this. Unemployment's only 1.7%. Yeah, if you don't work, they'll shoot you. Why they pay you $300 a year. Now Matt covers the literacy thing, but in the interest of not only promoting my own site, there's a great piece in Cato about this as well. Again, in the show notes,

spongino.com slash newsletter. If you want us to email you these articles every day cato institute senator sanders is wrong on cuban education and health care may i add two this is by a marianne tupi and chelsea foley so forgive me if i'm saying your name wrong it's unintentional look at this little snippet from the cato piece on bernie sanders because he loves the literacy programs in Cuba if they don't kill you or torture you you will definitely learn how to read in Cuba on that $300 a year from Cato quote accordingly Cuba's literacy rate rose by 26 percent between

1950 and 1953 that's before Castro by the way oh, excuse me, since between 53 and 2000, during that revolution Castro era. But literacy rose even more by 37% in Paraguay. Then they go on how food consumption in Cuba declined by 12% while it rose in other countries. And the rate of car ownership and other things declined in Cuba. So just to be clear, as Cato points out, literacy went up in Cuba. I guess you're forced to read or they'll kill you in Cuba.

Yeah. The rate of food consumption went down. Car ownership went down. They make an average $300 a year. Pensioneers get $10 a month. And even the rate of literacy was higher in other countries in the region, notably like Paraguay and others, where the rate of literacy rose faster. Joe, that sounds like an awful lot of sacrifices to make for the simple act of learning to read.

Giving up your car, giving up your food, giving up your job, giving up your prosperity, giving up your freedom, and possibly your life if they kill you. Nah, that ain't worth it. That sucks. Yeah. Yeah, nah, I thought so too. Me and you think alike, Joe. Me too. I'm thinking that's it. life if they kill you yeah that ain't worth it that sucks yeah yeah nah i thought so too me and you think alike joe i'm thinking that's it i'm in my head going death torture learning to read torture handcuffs beatings i'm thinking yeah you're right joe a good call yeah yeah not working

for me either i'll just take that you know hooked on phonics it works for me you can buy that probably on amazon and you don't and no torture included or death or destruction either jail cells none of that stuff all right one more thing i wanted to cover on this before i move on to the flint stuff which is good oh boy is it good so bernie said last night again the debate was kind of dopey so i don't want to waste a lot of your time with clips you're going to see on cable. I just want to point out the safe pick stuff. But Bernie did say at the beginning of the debate again,

the fair share, we have got to get the rich to pay their fair share. The millionaires, the billionaires, they're screwing you over. Fair share. So he brought that up last night. So again, data matters, not to Bernie, because Bernie's kind of a numbskull and just avoids data at all costs. But we do facts and data on the show. So the Wall Street Journal had an interesting piece in this this morning by Phil Graham,

where they actually discuss what the fair share wealthy Americans pay. Headline, Phil Graham and John Early, wealthy Americans already pay their fair share. Now, folks, let me just be clear on one thing before I get to the actual numbers. If you are into the politics of envy, this show is not for you. It's not. Because let me be clear on where I stand. Someone emailed me the other day. So you ran for office.

Sometimes you don't tell us what your policy prescriptions are. Folks, taxes are a waste of money. It's flushing government down. It's flushing your money down the toilet. Outside of our military, our court system, and some basic government functioning, taxes are a waste of money. You want my perspective? That is it.

Government is a disaster. It has a significant third-party payer problem. They don't care about the cost of anything or the quality of anything, as Milton Friedman said, because they're spending other people's money on other people. It's not their money, and they're not even buying anything for themselves. So they don't care about the cost and they don't care about the quality. Government is a black hole of waste, period. That's where I stand on it. And people who are wealthy don't owe anybody an explanation how they got it if they got it legally. Of course, you stole money, broke the law, law unethical totally different story if you worked hard

you started a business and you accumulated wealth and capital to pass on to your family you don't owe anybody an explanation if that makes you uncomfortable fine maybe this isn't for you but that's where i stand having said that the wealthy already pay too much here are the actual numbers for lion bernie sanders who let's just before i put this piece up whose premise is we should have a tax structure more like countries like denmark and sweden who have renounced bernie sanders many of them that's what he said right we need to be more like Denmark. Yeah. He has said this over and over again. Sweden, that's where the action is. Remember that shoot Cribs on MTV?

This is where the action happens when they go to, this is Bernie, Sweden, that's where the action happens. Okay, so we want to be more like Sweden? Surely there are numbers to back this up. Of course, they're in the Wall Street Journal piece, which we see right here. in the Wall Street Journal piece, which we see right here. In the Wall Street Journal piece, you'll find out that if we were more like Sweden, who would be paying more? Not the wealthy and their fair share, but the middle class.

Check this out. Quote from the Wall Street Journal piece. Data from the OECD show that the U.S. has the most progressive income tax system in the world. Really? That's not what Bernie's saying, man. What does that mean?

He's lying again? Yeah, of course he's lying. That's all he does. With the top 10% of earners paying 45% of all income taxes, including Social Security and Medicare taxes, compared with, we've got to be more like Sweden.

Really? Because in Sweden, they only pay 27%. In France, only 28%. Folks, again, if the numbers don't matter to you, you can tune out now. The top 10%, keep that up.

The top 10% of earners in the United States pay 45% of all income taxes, Social Security and Medicare. The piece goes on. That's more than France and Sweden. If the US government spent as large a share of their GDP and had the same tax structure as France, the top 10% of earners would pay about what they pay now in income taxes. But listen to this.

The bottom 90% would see their taxes almost double. Again, folks, you want to make a coherent argument as a Bernie bro. Bernie bros, man. We love Bernie. Millionaires are billionaires. You want it? Fine. Go ahead.

Knock yourselves out. But make an argument using coherent facts and data that makes sense. Not your Bernie Bro snuggie nonsense. You want to be more like Denmark and Sweden? Then what you're essentially lobbying for is an income tax cut for wealthy Americans. Because wealthy Americans pay a larger burden of the tax load than people do in Sweden in that tax bracket.

You want to be more like France? Fine. The wealthy already pay what they pay in France, but the middle class will be getting a huge double their tax income bill at the end of the year. Make an argument that makes sense. Is it too much to ask to use basic math? Remember Andrew Yang? Math.

He didn't use math either. It's voodoo math unbelievable all right let me knock this out let's do the flynn stuff because this is good i'm gonna this guy was set up folks i'm telling you it's becoming more obvious by the day and this scam is getting uglier by the minute don't go anywhere our last sponsor of the day our friends at here it is, We The People Holsters. Look at it.

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Mike Flynn was set up, folks. Tell him what you're going to tell him. Tell him and then tell him what you told him has always been the motto of my show. He was set up and is becoming more obvious by the day. Lieutenant General Flynn is essentially right now, if he is sentenced, is going to be a political prisoner. No, you can't say that. Oh, I just did. And it is absolutely true. Mike Flynn is being prosecuted because of his political affiliation with Donald Trump for a crime that was never committed. I'm not even saying there was no crime committed at all. Mike Flynn didn't commit that crime. No, no, there isn't a crime. It's like saying it was a bank rob. You accused Flynn and it wasn't Flynn. There was no bank rob. Mike Flynn is going to jail potentially for a crime that never happened.

Lying to the FBI. The FBI has already admitted he didn't lie to them. There's no crime. Now, let's walk through the setup because I got some information this week and I want to hat tip again, the great Technofog on Twitter. If you're not following Technofog's account,

you're missing out on all the juicy Spygate stuff. I'm going to put a list together one day for the show. Sean Davis, Molly Hemingway, Techno Fog, Undercover Huber, Jeff Carlson. You're missing out on all the good stuff if you're not following these people. Techno turned me on to something. Here we go.

Let's do a little background first. So we know from this Sidney Powell legal filing in this timeline that a case was opened up on Mike Flynn on August 16th, an FBI case on Mike Flynn. Now, why is that date interesting? The date is interesting as we can see here because they actually opened up the Crossfire Hurricane case to spy on the Trump team, the FBI, July 31st. So they waited till August 16th. Now on August 10th, they opened up cases on Manafort, Carter Page and Papadopoulos, but not on Flynn, which is suspicious because the next day,

as we can see from Sidney Powell, Mike Flynn's attorney, I should say, Sidney Powell's legal filing on August 11th, the day after they open up cases on Manafort, Page, and Papadopoulos, but not on Flynn, crazy. Stephen Halper, you know, known spy, human intelligence asset for the United States government, but connections to the intelligence community. We know Halper shows up the next day, a known CIA operative, to quote her legal filing, of questionable dealings.

And all of a sudden, he meets with the FBI. Ladies and gentlemen, is it possible that on August 10th, they open up on Page, Manafort, and Papadopoulos, and someone at the CIA, maybe John Brennan's crew, who's had Mike Flynn in their sights for a long time, we already know that, they've been spying on him since 2014. I've covered that in past shows. Is it possible that someone in the CIA is very upset that on August 10th a case isn't open against Mike Flynn? You can't spy on Mike Flynn if you have no case. So someone in the CIA, do they contact the FBI and say, hey, we got a source we need you to talk to who shows up magically the day after they don't open up a case on Flynn?

Strange. And we all know on August 10th as well, what else happens? And we all know on August 10th as well, what else happens? The dossier from Christopher Steele, one of his memos, magically appears dated August 10th, which implicates Mike Flynn in a Kremlin influence operation. Really suspicious that time. You didn't open up on Flynn. Hey, look what we got, this dossier. And by the way, have you spoken to our boy Halper?

Crazy the timing on that, right? We already know that stuff. Just a little background. So the CIA is getting worried someone targeting Mike Flynn in our intelligence community because he was getting ready to blow the whistle on all the malfeasance in the intelligence community as a former intelligence community official himself as head of the DIA they're getting really worried so something happens on December 29th of 2016 of Of course, they open up the case on August 16th of 2016 after meeting with Halper and getting the dossier about Flynn after not opening up a

case on August 10th. My guess here, ladies and gentlemen, is from August 16th until December, they are trying to build a case against Mike Flynn because they need to shut him down, but they can't. Why, Joe? because they don't have anything on mike flynn they've got zero that was more of a heart so let's do a zero you can't come down there it looks like love you which don't love you what you did to mike flynn zero big donut they've got nothing they're panickingicking. We produced the dossier, dossier on Flynn on August 10th, got the Bureau to open up a case,

been spying on him ever since, using Halper and all these other people, humint and sigint assets, and we still can't get anything on Flynn. Why, Joe? Because Flynn's not doing anything wrong. That's right. So they got to get him on something on something gotta shut this guy down so

let's put together some dates here folks so the guardian has this article uh which you can see here president obama probably he's getting a little nervous right now remember president obama warns president trump about just one guy he doesn't like and that's it who's that guy mike flynn obama really hates Mike Flynn because Mike Flynn spoke out against his Iran deal. So what does Obama do? Look at this piece on December 30th. So on December 29th, headline Guardian,

Obama expels 35 Russian diplomats in retaliation for election hacking. A lot of people were suspicious about this. They were like, why is he doing that now? Kicking cables everywhere. Sorry, that was me. For those of you watching were like, why is he doing that now? Kicking cables everywhere. Sorry, that was me for those of you watching the YouTube. Why is he doing that now? Why is Obama right before he's about to leave office?

President Trump is the president-elect at the time. Barack Obama, of course, is still the president until January of 2017. Why is he expelling Russian diplomats on this election hacking if he knew there was election hacking going on? And why wait until December 29th? Well, let's go to this New York Times piece because General Flynn, who at the time is the appointed National Security Advisor, but again, President Trump is still the president elect. So Lieutenant General Flynn is the appointed National security advisor, but not formally yet.

We see this New York Times article document provides new details of Mike Flynn's interview with the FBI, where they later claim he lied, but during their evaluation of the interview said he didn't lie because he didn't. Something else happens in late December when President Obama suspiciously expels these Russian diplomats from these compounds in New York and Maryland. Let's look at this New York Times piece. What else is going on in late December, i.e. December 29th? Quote, Mike Flynn has pled guilty to misleading investigators about a series of conversations he had with Mr. Kislyak. He's since rescinded that plea. And in late December 2016, while serving as a key member of Mr. Trump's transition team. Oh, so in late December, there was a call with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, after the Russians were expelled

from that compound. Now, the press has frequently cited there were multiple calls between Kislyak, but I have from a unimpeachable source on this that the reason Mike Flynn, Lieutenant General Flynn, made multiple calls to Ambassador Kislyak from Russia after the Russian diplomats were suspiciously expelled from the United States by Obama was not because they had a whole lot to say. Again, you won't hear this in the media, but was because the cell service was terrible and the Dominican Republican, he had to keep calling them back. But again, multiple calls, Joe, makes it seem like, whoa, Mike Flynn was really injecting himself in this situation.

Joe, multiple calls. The calls were dropping, you knuckleheads. Look at the duration of multiple calls. The calls were dropping, you knuckleheads. Look at the duration of the calls. Everybody leaks everything to you in the media. Can't you just get that from your intel sources that violate the law? I'm sure you could just call somebody up. Now, for regular listeners of the show, you're putting two and two together, and you've probably heard this story before, and you're wondering what's new here. Oh, there's a new angle. For those of you who haven't and don't get what aren't picking up what i'm putting down folks i'm

absolutely convinced let me just say it obama expelled those diplomats because mike flynn on december 29th was where why were the calls dropping because he wasn't in the united states he was on a brief holiday vacation late december i.e. Christmastime, in the Dominican Republic. They knew. The Obama team knew. What else did they know? They probably knew while he's in the Dominican Republic that he probably doesn't have access to the portfolio of secure comms he would have at communications in the United States, right? So let's walk through the Obama White House.

Gosh, we really can't stand this Mike Flynn guy. We've thrown this dossier at him. We've thrown Halper at him. We got the FBI to open a case up against him, even though they probably didn't want to on August 10th. We got nothing on him. What do we do? I've got an idea.

Let's kick these Russians out of Maryland and New York and expel them from the country because what's going to happen? Obviously, the Russian ambassador is going to want to call the incoming president and his companion on the other side, his working partner, who would be Mike Flynn, who would deal with this stuff, obviously. Where's Flynn? Flynn's in the Dominican. Great.

We can listen in on the phone call even easier. Let's listen in on the whole thing. And the minute he talks about it, the minute he mentions it, let's run to the White House and say, Mike Flynn violated the Logan Act. The Logan Act, a ridiculous, unconstitutional, nonsensical law

that has never been successfully prosecuted by anyone in United States history. If the Logan Act was real, John Kerry would be in jail for negotiating with the Iranians.

It's fake. It's fake news. It's a law. It's a lino. A law in name only. But they got desperate. All they had was the lino logan act so they boot these russians out knowing flynn will make a call from overseas knowing they can listen in he made

multiple calls the phone was they kept disconnecting you dopes my gosh your reporters can you do some basic investigation conveniently on the day he's gone. Now, what's new here? Let me give a hat tip to Technofog. But first, I want to put up this Sidney Powell legal filing because this is where I got this from. These are his highlights. Great job there. An interesting little curveball here that's new here.

Flynn and Powell are requesting the records of Colonel James Baker. James Baker was Stephen Halper, the spy who was spying on Flynn and others. That was his handler in the Office of Net Assessment in the Pentagon. An ONA director, Baker, regularly lunched with Washington Post reporter

David Ignatius. What are the chances of that? Wow. Baker, I know you know what's going on. Baker is believed to be the person who illegally leaked the transcript of Mr. Flynn's call to Ignatius. Oh, how great is this? What have I been telling you? And I'll address this on my Spygate panel at CPAC with Devin Nunes. What have I been telling you is the major takeaway from the Spygate scandal on the Trump team. It's not just that the Obama administration chose to willingly spy on their political opponents for political non-criminal reasons. They fabricated all the criminal reasons and intel reasons. They're all made up in the fake

dossier. That isn't even the biggest scandal, ladies and gentlemen. The biggest scandal is you pay for it. Colonel James Baker in the Office of Net Assessments, that Office of Net Assessments is a Pentagon office using your taxpayer dollars that was paying Stephen Halper to spy on the Trump team and spy on Mike Flynn. And as Powell indicates in that legal filing, it is suspected, according to her information, that Baker may have lunched regularly with the Washington Post's David Ignatius

that got the transcript of the December 29th call I just told you about and printed information about that call in the Washington Post, which was later used, information about that call in the Washington Post, which was later used, look, it's in the Washington Post, to run to the White House with Sally Yates from the DOJ and other anti-Trumpers to say, you better do something about this. You better do something about this. And then later when President Trump got in office and Mike Flynn was a national security advisor, we have to interview Mike Flynn with the fbi look at this washington post reporting is this is big trouble could be the logan act you see the cycle here

obama we need to get something on flynn we don't have anything on flynn kick diplomats out use diplomats excuse to monitor flynn's phone calls while he's overseas in the dominican republic trans get the transcript from the phone call. Leak the transcript to the Washington Post. While paying, leak it potentially to the guy who's running the office that's paying a spy to spy on Flynn. Use the Washington Post story to run back to the White House to demand Flynn be fired for the Logan Act and prosecute him later for the interview you did on it. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Flynn is a political prisoner. There is no doubt. And you paid for it. You paid for it. Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting. All right. One final story of the day on a good note, because I don't want to leave you abandoned

before we jump on a flight here up to c-pack again hope to see you there pj media today great story in the show notes president trump is making significant progress ladies and gentlemen we are finally defunding planned parenthood which is a abomination of an organization uh planned parenthood is was defunded and trump won this case in the ninth the nutty night how is that the nutty you know, the ninth circuit court of appeals where the liberals always go and win because it's been stacked by liberal judges. Well, not the case. So for all you never Trumpers out there, I don't see any value in Donald Trump. Yeah, it's because you're an idiot. Trump flips the ninth circuit court like a boss, Megan Fox, PJ media, and gets a huge win in his quest to defund

Planned Parenthood. Ladies and gentlemen, the Trump presidency. As we can see from the piece, we've had 10 appointees to the Ninth Circuit Court. Actual judges using the Constitution. From the piece, Trump has appointed 10 constitutionalist judges to lifetime positions on the San Francisco Court and has effectively tilted the balance in favor of conservatives, which is sending waves of fear through the left nice the los angeles times reports of the senior judges who will be deciding cases on merits panels reading briefs and issuing rulings 10 are republicans and only three are democrat appointees nice ninth circuit court judge milan d smith, you will see a sea change in the Ninth Circuit on day-to-day decisions, Smith predicted.

All I have to say to that is yes. Yes. What? You have some, you never inject. Paul is injecting commentary in the show now. You'll get to see her at CPAC because we'll be having the CPAC view, which will be a different view than you're used to ladies and gentlemen for all again the never trumpers out there there have been real tangible ramification i put listen i i've told you i'm from queens trump's from queens i don't mind trump's personality or style i i get it that

some of you that's okay i'm not knocking you i mean it there are some republicans who are really principled people who are like, I wish he'd stop tweeting. Okay, I totally get it. Fine. It doesn't bother me at all. I don't care. But I understand.

Just vote for him and we'll be okay. Put that aside for a moment. Constitutionalist judges. Economic growth. Rebuilding our military. Actually respected overseas again. Significant portions of black voters now, for the first time, looking at a GOP candidate.

Regulatory reform. Folks, I'd go on. There's other things I don't agree with. I wasn't a fan of the tariffs or criminal justice reform. But having said that, again, we don't mess around here. I respect the president. I'm definitely going to vote for him, fully support him. But I don't agree around here. I respect the president. I'm definitely going to vote for him, fully support him. But I don't agree with everything. Nobody does.

On the margin, this has been not just a successful, but an incredibly successful presidency. I'm just asking you never Trumpers out there to get out of your ideological box for a second. It's not even ideological. Because if you say you're never Trump, but you're a Republican, it's not ideological. That's inaccurate. I have to be precise. It's almost a faith-based, your faith is anti-Trump. It's almost a religion to you. Just look at

this objectively. The Ninth Circuit, we're winning cases in the Ninth Circuit. I never in my lifetime thought I would say those words. Ever. Incredible. I still can't get over by the way, Bernie, Bernie with the hands, stop with the hands. What is he doing? Did you see the debate? This hand thing, put the hand that I've debated a lot, a lot. Just put your hand down and wait, calm down. He looks like a kid in kindergarten. Sheesh. What's he doing?

Taking like nitric oxide tablets before the debate? Relax, Bernie. You look ridiculous. All right. Thanks again for tuning in. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. We're almost to 400,000 subscribers. They're free.

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Thanks a lot. I'll see you all at CPAC again. Come and say hi. We got some giveaways for you, all free. We bought them for you because we love you all to death. You mean the world to us. You made our lives really incredible. So see you at CPAC.

Take care. You just heard the Dan Bongino Show. You can also get Dan's podcasts on iTunes or SoundCloud and follow Dan on Twitter. 24 seven at D Bon Gino.